This invention relates generally to a document feeding mechanism which utilizes a driving roller and a pinch roller to feed documents therebetween in a document track. More specifically, it relates to a quick-release mechanism which enables the pinch roller to be moved quickly from its operating position in association with the driving roller to a retracted position away from the driving roller to facilitate the removal of a document which may be jammed in the document track.
One of the problems which occurs with document feeding mechanisms of the prior art is that it is sometimes difficult to extract a document which gets jammed in a document track. Generally, the jamming of a document occurs near a reading head (like an optical read head or a magnetic read head) which is located in the document track associated with financial business machines like encoders or proofing machines, for example. Generally, there is a driving roller and a pinch roller located in the document track on the upstream and downstream sides of the reading head mentioned. By the time a jammed document is removed from the document track under prior art constructions, the jammed document may become crumpled or ripped.